Justin Townes Earle appeared onstage Monday night, met by the enthusiastic cheers of a perty-full crowd at First Avenue, he in contact lenses, proclaiming himself to be “all hopped up on B vitamins, ladies and gentlemen.”

– Nikki Miller, City Pages

Jessica Hopper talks about growing up in Minneapolis

In 2009, she published A Girl’s Guide to Rocking, an all-encompassing book that doesn’t just promote female activism; it also explains the ins-and-outs of the business, such as how to buy an instrument and how to soundproof a studio.

If Robyn was still feeling the ill effects of her sickness, she didn’t let us see it as she took the stage dancing and played a long set, with no fewer than three encores, to what she described as the best crowd of her tour to date.

As a congressman’s recent indiscretion-driven resignation reminds us, sex and politics have long been bedfellows. They’re also the twin engines that propel Brave New Workshop’s latest comedy revue, “Sarah Palin’s Minnesota or Hindsight is 2011.”